The present invention relates to vending machines and the like, and more, particularly, to a dispensing mechanism by which articles can be released from a module of a vending machine.
There is a wide variety of presently known vending machines with provisions for releasing products from the modules in which they are stored. The demands made on these dispensing mechanisms are high since they must be capable of a great many operating cycles without fail. Since the machines are at scattered locations, the need for service and repair must be minimized and the down time that results from a malfunction must be avoided. Moreover, these mechanisms, which often receive rough treatment from users, must be capable of operating reliably over a wide range of temperatures encountered at locations that are neither heated nor air conditioned. Humidity can present a further problem and articles such as cigarette packages tend to adhere to one another, particularly if the machine has not been operated for some time. Experience has shown that a machine is more likely to be subjected to vandalism if it malfunctions.
While some known dispensing mechanisms have been able to meet the reliability standards required of them, this may necessitate considerable expense and complexity, particularly when the size of the machine must be minimized and the contents of the machine must be well protected from theft.
A problem associated with a number of presently known dispensing mechanisms is that they are very limited with respect to the dimensions of the article they can dispense. In the vending of cigarettes, this problem is particularly acute since a wide variety of package dimensions are now in common use.
Most dispensing mechanism in use today are so interrelated to the surrounding structure of the machine that they must be repaired on site or else the entire machine must be transported to a repair facility. In addition, the dispensing mechanism associated with different modules, e.g., the various columns of cigarettes in a cigarette-vending machine, are interconnected to each other in such a manner that an individual dispensing mechanism cannot readily be serviced separately and a malfunction of one mechanism may effect many other mechanisms in the same machine.
The objectives of the present invention include the provision of a dispensing mechanism that is simple, reliable, jam-free, easily serviced and can easily be replaced to accommodate in the machine articles of different dimensions.